Kindly Mr. Chuck raised a generation of Mid-South children

Scruggs 'genuinely loved what he did'

Charles A. "Mr. Chuck" Scruggs reads to local children during Saturday's My First Library Card Celebration Saturday at the Central Library. (Brittney Williford /Special to The Commercial Appeal)

Charles Scruggs, the man the Mid-South knew as Mr. Chuck, died early Friday at his Midtown home. The career broadcaster was 80.

A role model to thousands of children through WKNO-TV's "Hello, Mr. Chuck," he wowed even nationally known Mr. Rogers with his prowess as a children's television host.

"The key to his success was his genuineness," said WKNO president and CEO Mike LaBonia. "He was always the same. He genuinely loved what he did. He was never out of character because he was always in character."

Besides being an advocate for children, Scruggs was the first black general manager of WDIA, the first all-black programming radio station in the nation. He also took out a personal loan to help a small group of people interested in buying the Lorraine Motel to establish the National Civil Rights Museum.

"I would always brag to other folks in the museum industry that we have a couple of foundations and iconic figures of the movement still alive," said museum director Beverly Robertson. "It's really sad when you lose them. You feel a deep, personal loss."

Some at WDIA learned of Scruggs' death when a listener called to offer condolences to the family on the air Friday morning. "I was knocked off my feet. Mr. Scruggs hired me in 1983. He was such a gentleman. Just a giant gentleman," said Bev Johnson, WDIA personality.

Scruggs came to Memphis as general manager in 1972 after hosting popular radio programs in Cincinnati, Nashville and at WDIA's sister station, KDIA in San Francisco.

"He had a lot of drive," said Ford Nelson, longtime WDIA personality and an early piano player for B.B. King. "Charles Scruggs was one that strove for excellence at all times. A lot of bosses say 'Do as I say not as I do,' but he was the kind of person that set the example. He was so involved in every operation of the radio station. He was just as thorough with my department (news) as he was with sales and programming.

As late as last fall, Scruggs was still chairman of WDIA's "goodwill fund." Even when his causes fell outside the fund's bylaws, "he found a way to help," said Mark Stansbury.

Scruggs was inducted in the Black Broadcaster Hall of Fame in 1997.

Long before he was Mr. Chuck, Scruggs was "Bugs Scruggs," a lively on-air personality who at 16 was hosting his own R&B program on WDXB in Chattanooga.

The on-air names were a point of contention for black deejays because they were chosen by the white station owners, said Novella Arnold Smith. "They gave them the names as a way to keep from being hired away," she said. "A station owner wouldn't have to worry about losing talent because no one knew who they were."

In 1993, when Scruggs was 60, he began the most public work of his career as the kindly, grandfather-like host of "#10 Friends Circle," a program WKNO started to address the need for preschool education here. Scruggs had a history at WKNO and offered to host the show, which started as a montage of public television children's programs staged in a fictitious neighborhood. Scruggs stitched the segments together with his gentle advice.

"What we learned from our research was it was having a phenomenal impact," LaBonia said. "Many of the children who were watching had no neighborhood. This was their only neighborhood."

From that success, WKNO launched "Sundays at Mr. Chuck's," a 30-minute weekly show that aired from January 1995 to January 1997. It spun into "Hello, Mr. Chuck," a program that earned a Silver Honor Award in 1999 from Parents Choice and regional Emmy in 2000.

"Mr. Rogers came to Memphis in 1997, and he stopped in over here," LaBonia said. "He watched some of Mr. Chuck's takes, and when he was about to leave, he stepped into my office and said, 'You have something truly remarkable taking place here. He is achieving things I still struggle to achieve.' "

Scruggs is survived by his wife, Jean, and two sons. Funeral arrangements are incomplete.